All right, so maybe not everyone enjoyed seeing the Bruins’ bid for their 13th straight victory denied on Monday night, mainly because it was the ever-irritating Canadiens who ended the streak. Besides that, while no team seems to mind winning via a shootout, those who lose via the skills contest seem to dislike it quite a bit.

“Any game, to lose in a shootout, stinks,” said goalie Tuukka Rask, who surrendered the only goal of Monday’s shootout to Alex Galchenyuk on the Canadiens’ fourth attempt, sending the B’s out of TD Garden with a 2-1 loss. “Still got a point, though.”

Because they hadn’t lost since March 1, the Bruins were in no real need of points on Monday – although the point they did earn put them one ahead of St. Louis in the race for first place in the NHL. As they said repeatedly while extending their streak, the main concern was to continue playing the type of hockey that will win when the playoffs begin in a few weeks.

If they’d executed that goal just a little sooner, they might have beaten the Habs. For a couple of reasons, though, they got a late start on playing their type of hockey.

“It was the typical game that teams play when they come back off one of those road trips,” said coach Claude Julien, whose team spent Sunday flying back from Phoenix, and a hard-fought, 4-2 win over the Coyotes on Saturday night that closed a 3-0-0 trip. “I can’t explain it. Everybody goes through that.”

Also hard to explain, but just as easy to expect, was the way the B’s let the Habs drive them nuts, from the drop of the puck through the second period. The Bruins were shorthanded three times in the first 25 minutes – twice because of penalties that were retaliatory, or stemmed from some other form of frustration.

Naturally, an antagonist had to give Montreal a 1-0 lead during one of the power plays. Alexei Emelin, who had flipped Milan Lucic over his hip in open ice on the second shift of the game (B’s captain Zdeno Chara confronted Emelin after the hit), scored at 6:39, with a shot that beat Rask after deflecting off Chris Kelly’s stick.

That wasn’t what Lucic wanted to see Emelin do.

“Whether (Emelin’s check) is fair, legal, or whatever ... if he wasn’t scared, he’d stand up and hit me and not go down after my knees,” Lucic said. “It just shows how big of a chicken he is that he needs to go down like that to take me down.”

Page 2 of 2 - Two Bruins, meanwhile, took themselves off the ice because they were unable to prevent themselves from going after the Habs’ notorious P.K. Subban – who sold the incidents for all they were worth. Brad Marchand took a high-sticking penalty at 3:09 of the second period, Johnny Boychuk a roughing penalty at 17:12.

“It’s an emotional game any time we play them,” said Marchand. “They know that, and they poke at us a bit and try to get penalties ... and it worked a little bit tonight.”

The Bruins got better as they calmed down, ultimately forcing the Canadiens into four third-period penalties. On the season-high sixth power play of the night, Patrice Bergeron tipped his 23rd goal of the season (second-highest output of his career) past Peter Budaj, who had a great, 28-save game.

“After we stayed out of the box, I think we played much better hockey,” Marchand said.

Julien acknowledged his team’s temporary lack of discipline, but had no complaints otherwise.

“You can’t win 12 in a row, lose one in a shootout and say ‘I’m really disappointed in my team,’” the coach said.

“I don’t think so. I think our team is OK.”

Mike Loftus may be reached at mloftus@ledger.com or follow on Twitter @MLoftus_Ledger.